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Woman Gives Birth In the Lobby of a California Barnes & Noble

A woman in Torrance, Calif., went into a Barnes & Noble to shop for some books, but she never expected to walk out with a newborn baby.

Firefighters say they arrived on the scene at around 7:30 p.m. on Friday after getting the call that a woman was in labor. Witnesses say at first the woman just started screaming, and they thought somebody was hurting her. They eventually realized that she was in labor, and by the time the firefighters arrived, the baby was ready to come out.

The firefighters initially were deciding whether they needed to keep her in the store or put the woman in an ambulance to be taken to the hospital, but they quickly realized the baby was actually coming.

“The baby made that decision for them,” said Torrance Fire Department Captain Steve Deuel. “They went ahead and delivered a healthy baby boy.”

Police were on scene to control the crowd that surrounded the woman while she was giving birth, but that didn’t stop people from taking pictures and posting updates on social media about what they were witnessing.

“That is a really awkward event to do in public,” said store manager Marchelle Hughes. “At the same time it’s a really tender moment, and I think everybody wanted to share that.”

It’s a rare occurrence that a woman has to give birth in a public place, but firefighters who delivered the baby on Friday say it was a special moment.

“Occasionally, nature writes the script, not us,” said Deuel. “This was a good Friday night for all of us.”